Into the Bush

We have a long day ahead of us.    Quick breakfast, then on to Port Hedland.  Did I mention the flies?  I wasn't kidding.  That's right, breakfast with fly nets on.

Karijini, our destination, why we've driven 12 hours from Broome has no supermarket and no drinkable water.  So before our 3 nights in Karijini we need to stock up.  Before going to Karijini we did our homework.  It is the desert after all.  It's going to be hot, really hot.  Check out the averages here.  Low around 19 Celsius, Highs in the 40s.  At the supermarket we bought 80 Liters of water.  Port Hedland (look it up on the map) has a giant mine directly in the town!.  This image below is from the salt mountain that you can see from miles away.  Otherwise it is a shit-hole and should be avoided if possible.

We leave Port Hedland around 11 and should get to Karijini around 4pm.  Just enough time to set up our tents, put the lamb on the grill and enjoy a great dinner under the stars in Karijini.  On the drive to Karijini we meet the road trains.  You have to picture this.  The road is narrow.  The road has grooves where these road trains drive, so the car is jerking around on the road, there is no shoulder, you are driving on the left and your passenger thinks that you're going to drive off the road at any minute.  Then one of these, filled with gasoline comes at you at 70mph.

Road Train

Taken from Monbill's car.  Do you see us in front?

Just after this near death experience with the road train we get out of the car and stretch our legs.  It's 43C (109F).  The heat is incredible.  Feels like an oven.  You can see that the landscape has changed; greener more trees, and clouds.  Uh oh.  It doesn't rain in the desert does it?  Nah...this is going to pass.

Sign on the road.  That is a Kangaroo crossing sign.  420km is 260 miles.

We pull into Karijini right around 5 (one hour to sunset).  The campsite that we are staying at is 45K from the entrance...going 110kph we should be there in 30 minutes.  Oh, and it's pouring now.  I guess it does rain in the desert.  10 K into the park the paved road ends.  Brent acutely points out, "Well, this is going to change our time estimates."  Yeah.  About an hour and a bit later (right around sundown) we pull into the reception of the campsite.  Now there is massive lightening, wind, and rain.  At the reception I ask if it is safe to be out there.  The most unhelpful receptionist states, "Woah...I don't know...doesn't look good out there...don't know what to tell you."  Thanks!  We'll take 2 campsites.  So now it is getting dark and absolutely pouring rain.  Huge drops are falling hard.  We sit in the car (Monbill sits outside in a chair) and wait it out.  It finally subsides and we jump out and set up our tents.  Heike and I win, getting our tent set up the quickest.  Go HD.  Annette and Brent do eventually get theirs set up, but they get a little wet.  HD however could not get the stakes in the ground, so I put one 10L thing of water in it to hold it down and I start cooking with Monbill.  Now it is cold (18C , 64F).  It dropped 45F in a matter of hours.  It is raining sideways and is now officially dark.  Of course we couldn't get the BBQ hot and it took over an hour to cook the lamb steak and potatoes.

 Now the wind really picks up.  We're talking hurricane strength.  For example, I tried to pull out a piece of tin foil, and the wind caught it and I had a tin foil kite.  Shit.  You know, maybe I should go check on the tent. I get back to the tent to see the whole tent in the air being held down only by the 10L of water.   Shit.  I grab some heavy shit from the car and put it inside, I find some rocks and put them on the tent.  What are we going to do?

We do not have many happy campers.  The girls and Brent are hanging out in the car while Monbill and I complete the lamb.  Once I put some rain gear on, I feel better, but have no idea where to sleep.  The wind is still blowing everything around and the tents are absolutely whipping in the wind.

We eat in the car.  The lamb is beautiful.  Delicious.  Potatoes are great too.  Eating conditions in the car?  Suboptimal but OK.

Now where are we going to sleep?  We can't all sleep in the cars, and the wind and rain are still howling outside.  I venture into our tent.  We are not campers.  We are summer, nice weather campers and bought a cheap tent on Amazon, so I'm not expecting greatness.  The tent, however, is warm and dry, and wonderful.  The stone ground was radiating wonderful heat into the tent.  Beautiful.  Good night.  Tomorrow, maybe the storm will blow out.

Karijini eco retreat campsite, 3am

Moon over Karijini